Today, we’re joining our partners at Blog Action Day and thousands of others worldwide to pay tribute to the power of community. The 2012 Blog Action Day theme, “the power of we,” is “a celebration of people working together to make a positive difference in the world, either for their own communities or for people they will never meet.”

At Oxfam America, we know just how much those collaborative efforts matter. Around the world, our programs to solve poverty and hunger are often led by local men and women who are working together to improve their own lives. Here in the US, our supporters also help raise awareness about these efforts and inspire others to take action. Sometimes those two groups even come together, as you’ll see in some of the photos below—and when they do, the results can be astonishing.

So in honor of “the power of we,” here are five Oxfam photos that we think best capture the spirit of community:

1.   Sharing solutions to hunger

Selas Samson Biru, center, a farmer from Tigray, Ethiopia, compares crops with Sonia Kendrick, left, and Linda Barnes, right, both Iowa farmers and Oxfam Sisters on the Planet ambassadors. In honor of World Food Day last year, Oxfam brought women farmers like Biru to the US to meet their American counterparts and talk about shared solutions to global hunger. Photo: Ilene Perlman/Oxfam America

2.   Pooling resources

Local women in Banakoro, Mali, during a weekly meeting of their community savings and lending group, which they call Sabougnuma, or “good deed.” Oxfam’s Saving for Change program helps poor people in five countries start and run their own village savings groups, which act as community banks and can make loans to members in need. Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/Oxfam America

3.   Lending a hand

NFL superstar wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin (facing away from camera) help with community rebuilding efforts during a visit to Tigray, Ethiopia, with Oxfam earlier this year. Inspired by their travels, Boldin and Fitzgerald recently launched a fundraising campaign to help Ethiopian communities recover from last year’s drought and food crisis. Photo: Audra Melton/Oxfam America

4.   Providing for the next generation

Marlith Amasifuen, shown here with her son Bryan, is one of 30 indigenous women from Aviación, Peru, who work together to maintain a shared garden deep in the Amazon forest. With Oxfam’s support, the women cultivate the same traditional crops that their Kichwa ancestors once grew, protecting their families from crop loss caused by climate change and providing a steady food source for their children.  Photo: Percy Ramírez/Oxfam America

5.  Educating friends and neighbors

More than 200 people participated in an Oxfam America Hunger Banquet® event in New York City in 2011. Nearly 40 years after the first Oxfam America Hunger Banquet, this memorable, interactive event continues to educate Americans about the causes of hunger and poverty; thousands of people around the country host or attend local Hunger Banquets each year. Photo: Nicole Kindred/Oxfam America